is dw1510 still a good 1/2 mini pci-e?

[marlov]

I'm looking for buying a 1/2 mini pci-e card for my e5440 laptop. I'm also looking to buying more of one to re-sell here in Brazil, because we don't have good options in here. I'm using Catalina and one of the requirements is that it works in Catalina

 

I was looking to dw1510, which is really cheap. I know it doesn't have ac wifi, nor 4.1 Bluetooth, but how fast is it's wifi?

Is there any better cheap wifi chips compared to the dw1510?

 

Also, one of the most important question, does those wifi chips works on any branded laptop or they are somehow incompatible?

 

[Hervé]

DW1510 is now an old dual-band 802.a/b/g/n half mini-PCIe. It was last natively supported in Mojave 10.14 and dropped in Catalina with which it's only supported with those specific actions described in out wireless cards inventory thread where you'll also find references of better 802.11ac half mini-PCIe cards based on BCM4352 or BCM4360 chipsets. Those are also available at very reasonable cost. If Wikidevi died a few months ago, you can still look up specifications of wireless cards on alternative wikis if you Google a little...

http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Dell_Wireless_1510_(DW1510)

 

DW1510 is stated at 300Mbps card, i.e. most people will only get it to operate at 150Mbps max in any given direction, not at 300Mbps per sé. In practice, that means real-life rates around 100-120Mbps on 5GHz networks and around 70-100Mbps on 2.4GHz depending on surrounding environment.

 

Here's what I get out of my own DW1510 card on a 5GHz and a 2.4GHz network at approximately 10m from my Box (300Mbps Internet access).  In comparison, I get 300Mbps both ways out of my Apple 802.11ac BCM94360CD in my Latitude E6230.

     

 

Generally speaking (and that should go without saying), wireless cards are of course compatible with any PC, laptop or desktop, unless computer BIOS applies a whitelist (eg: some HP or Lenovo laptops).

 

Rest assured DW1510 is available for peanuts for a reason: it's old and, today, somehow limited performance-wise, though still entirely suitable to many people...